26
Travis
A few hours later, I glanced at Hartley across the cab of the big rig. She was strapped into the passenger seat and was doing her best not to look too nervous.
Everything was in place. Gage and Flynn knew their jobs and were already in position. Meanwhile, the truck’s cargo container was full of men strapped with serious weapons. Janey had decided to come herself, which impressed me. She looked fierce standing next to her two brothers, wearing body armor and holding a sawed-off shotgun.
I reached over and took Hartley’s hand. She smiled weakly at me as the truck rumbled down the old, bumpy road. Ahead, the factory loomed through from the hills, empty and crumbling.
It took a bit of maneuvering, but I managed to get the truck in through the narrow fence opening and backed slowly into the factory’s open first floor. There used to be big doors for deliveries, back in the day, but they had been torn off and tossed aside years ago.
The factory was essentially a giant steel tent, open to the elements on each side, with a crumbling roof over the top. It once made sneakers and leather boots, but now it just sat empty. Sometimes people went inside to break bottles and to smoke meth, but mostly it was home to opossums, squirrels, and millions of bugs.
Like most of the time, it was empty. There was no sign of the Dixie Mafia, though we were right on time. There were no cars coming up the road, nothing parked nearby. I reached up and touched the earpiece I had in my ear.
“Gage, you hear me?”
“Roger that, boss,” Gage answered.
“What do you see?”
“Owls and one big fucking truck.”
“Any sign of them?”
“Negative. Though we’ve only been here for ten minutes.”
“Roger that. Over and out.”
I put my hand back down and glanced at Hartley. “Nothing yet,” I said. “Come on. Let’s get out.”
“Wait.” She reached over and took my hand. “Whatever happens, we stick together. Right?”
I nodded. “No matter what.”
She nodded back, let go of my hand, and then climbed out of the truck.
As I got out of my side, suddenly something felt off. I heard a creak nearby and a muffled step.
My hand was on my gun as two thugs stepped out of the shadows, machine guns trained on me.
“Don’t,” the one said.
I slowly raised my hands.
More men came out of the shadows. I counted five in total on this side of the truck. The main thug roughly pushed me toward the front, and I saw Hartley coming around the other side, a gun pressed to her back.
As we stood in front of the truck, surrounded by eight men, all armed to the teeth, three more men came walking out from the shadows.
I recognized Hoyt instantly. The other two men I couldn’t place. They walked over and stopped in front of us. Hoyt looked nervous as hell and avoided eye contact.
One of the men I didn’t recognize stepped forward. He was about five foot five, burly and hairy, but was balding. He wore a dapper three-piece suit and was holding a cane.
“So,” he said, “this is the guy who demanded I show up.”
My heart nearly skipped a beat. This was him, Merton, the head of the Dixie Mafia in Knoxville.
“That’s me,” I said. “I come bearing gifts.”
He laughed. “You fucking better.” He looked at the other man I didn’t recognize. “Arlo, what do you think of our friend here?”
Arlo was taller, thinner, and tan. His skin almost looked like leather, he was so dark. His black hair was long and tied back in a ponytail.
“Seems like an asshole,” he said simply.
Merton laughed. “Yeah. He sure does.”
“Are we doing business or not?” I asked. “I didn’t come here to waste my fucking time.”
“You’re wasting my time by asking for me to come here, so you’ll deal with this, you fucking little prick.”
I clenched my jaw but nodded. “Fine. The shipment is in the back.”
“How’d you do it?” he asked. “How’d you grab it?”
“Easy enough,” I said. “I figured out where they hid it by paying off one of their guards. Then I hired a few guys, killed the watchers, and loaded it up. Easy.”
Merton laughed and looked at Arlo. “Hear that, Arlo? Easy. Fucking easy.” He shook his head. “This guy is a fucking asshole. Right, Arlo?”
“Sure,” Arlo said.
“So, Travis, or whatever your name is, you stole from the Caldwells, got our shit back. Congrats. Are we supposed to be square now?”
“We are,” I said. “Those were the terms of the deal.”
“Here’s the problem. I think you’re an asshole, and I don’t like giving assholes what they want. So I’m changing the deal.”
I took a deep breath. “To what?” I asked.
Merton laughed. “This fucking guy. You just ask, ‘to what’? What a crazy asshole. Right, Arlo?”
“Right,” Arlo said.
“The deal is this: I’m taking the shipment, and then I’ll let you live. Your girl here, though, she’s fucking mine. She owes me money, and that isn’t going away.”
I had to play this right. I couldn’t let them get suspicious.
So I turned and punched the guard to my right in the face. He dropped like a fucking anvil.
I turned to take on the next one, but the guards were on me in a second. I fought hard, trading blows, but in the end I let the guys take me down. Meanwhile, Merton was laughing his ass off, enjoying the show.
Once I was down, with boots on my head and back, guns in my face, Merton walked over to me. He bent down, grinning at me. “See, asshole? You don’t win. I fucking win.” He straightened up. “Take the girl. Get the keys. Let’s finish this.”
One of the guards fished through my pockets and found the truck’s keys as another moved away. Arlo, Merton, and Hoyt walked toward the truck’s cab as the men moved toward the container.
“When we’re gone, kill this guy,” Merton said to the gun thugs still standing over me.
“Got it, boss,” one of the two thugs said.
I watched from the ground, patient, biding my time. I’d have a chance to make a move, and soon, but right now wasn’t the time. I had to be patient, even though these gun thugs were ready to murder me at any second. My heart was beating fast, but I had to use that energy, embrace the chaos.
I was trained for this. I was in my element.
Arlo, Merton, and Hoyt started to climb up into the cab. The other thugs went around back, and I watched as they began to pull open the back of the container.
Seconds away now. The doors were opening, and they weren’t going to find drugs and guns inside.
They were going to find death.
Shots cracked out suddenly. The two thugs standing over me dropped to the ground, a bullet in the skull of each.
“Got ’em,” Gage said in my ear. “Move.”
I grabbed one of their guns and was on my feet instantly as all hell broke loose.
The Caldwells waiting in the back began to blast their guns, mowing down the thugs. They didn’t stand a chance. They weren’t ready, for one, but they were vastly underequipped for another. They hadn’t expected a bunch of automatic rifle-toting killers to come spilling out of that truck.
I moved toward the other side of the truck where Hartley was being held. I caught sight of the guard stepping away from her and put a bullet in his skull. He collapsed to the ground, dead.
Hartley ran toward me and pressed herself against me. I pulled her away from the truck, finding cover behind a large support pillar as the gunfight continued.
The three men in the cab began to climb down. Arlo made a break for it, but I put a bullet in his knee. He dropped to the ground, screaming in pain. Merton caught sight of me and began firing his weapon at us. I pushed Hartley back into cover and returned fire, not shooting to kill, just trying to keep him busy.
Then it was all over. Almost as fast as it had begun, the Caldwells swarmed out of the truck, killing every last member of the mafia. Arlo was lying in the middle of the ground, screaming in agony, as Janey and her people slowly circled around Hoyt and Merton.
I moved out of cover and touched my earpiece. “Okay,” I said. “Good shooting. Keep your eyes out, though. Out.”
“Roger that.”
Hartley pressed up against my side. “Is it over?”
“Almost.”
We stood to the side as Janey Caldwell faced down that bastard Merton.
“You?” he asked, shocked. “The fucking Caldwells?”
“That’s right,” Janey said.
“I can’t believe that stupid bastard turned on us. We’re going to slaughter him, and then we’re going to slaughter you.”
“You know, Merton, I doubt that. See, you’re a pretty important guy. And once you’re gone, I’m going to give my brothers a call, and they’re going to kill a lot more of your people tonight. When we’re through, there won’t be anyone to stop us from taking over this town.”
“You fucking bitch.”
Janey smiled wickedly and lifted her gun, pressing it against his head. “That’s right. And you lose.”
She pulled the trigger. Merton’s head snapped back, a red mess, and he crumpled to the ground.
Her men began to cheer and she grinned at them. She took out a phone and typed out a text before putting it back into her pocket.